Had a long, full day today- it's now 12:41 A.M, and I'm waiting for our lights out at 1 AM. The reason for this lateness (normal lights out is 2100) is we spent all day (and night) on the Day/Night Fire Range. The Day fire was cool because we shot as many rounds (bullets) as we could from bunker positions downrange. I shot 104 rounds in about 45 seconds, minus magazine load/unload times. It didn't even matter if we hit the targets- all the drill sergeants wanted was us to shoot as much as possible- "suppressive fire", to stop an ambush.

Night fire was so cool! We had tracer rounds loaded, so you could see all these streaks of red light all down the range. They also sent up flares, which illuminated the entire area almost like day, for about 45 seconds at a time. Everyone was so pumped up after that.

Something else funny happened tonight- the entire company got together in formation around this platform, and proceeded to do drill sergeant imitations- a contest. Several members had the drill sergeants pegged- it was so hilarious. The drill sergeants laughed too. I was amazed it was condoned. Saturday and Sunday we're going to a carnival, too. It's a holiday weekend, you know.

I've had to paint camoflauge on my face lately as well. Yesterday we did field exercises, practicing moving in the woods. We shot blanks so no one got hurt- it was still fun. We even played M-16 lasertag with special belts out there. I was killed.

Two days ago (working backwards) I threw 2 live M-67 Fragmentation Grenades. The "kill radius" of such grenades is 5 meters, the casuality radius 15 meters. So understandably, I was a little concerned about a malfunction. Obviously I survived. I also qualified "Expert" on the hand grenade, meaning I aced all 7 stations on the Grenade Qualification Course. Basically, I'm good at aiming and throwing the grenade where I want it to go.

Monday is "U.S. Weapons", a class where we do Claymore Mines, M-60 Machine Guns, and shoot an AT4 Anti-tank Missle. (This last one will be cool.) The AT4 was, in fact, used in the Gulf War to destroy Iraqi tanks. The days that follow (next week) include a Drill and Ceremony practice session or two, as well as classes and the assorted same-old.

The day you'll be arriving here (July 22nd- late afternoon, I believe) is now only 18 days away- I will be so glad to see all of you again.

Take care and feel free to write at any time.

Dan